Korean War fighter pilot, John Lowery

Like so many people today, I communicate with friends via email. Often I receive letters and speeches that have been forwarded to me by my friends and they are from people I don't know. After awhile you keep seeing the same name at the top of the email that has been forwarded and you get the feeling that you know this person, though you have never met formally. The content of their letters speak to your spirit and somehow you connect.

Several years ago, our friend Ron Sheardown started forwarding emails from John Lowery. John sends detailed, long reads with a conservative slant that focus on veterans and military issues.

Finally, I asked Ron about his friend Lowery and was surprised when he told me that Col. John Lowery, USAF (ret.) was a combat jet fighter pilot in Korea with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing (FIW) and had 43 missions in the F-86 Sabre.

With 25-years active duty, Col. Lowery logged 5,000 hours in fighters, including: Lockheed F-80/T-33s and F-104s; North American F-86s and F-100s; Republic F-105s; Northrop F-5s and McDonnell Douglas F-4s. He spent twenty-four years as an Instructor in the Sabreliner and King Air, was a FAA Designated Check Pilot for ten years and has accumulated over 13,500 flying hours.

One of John's emails to Ron said, "I just finished a week of escorting Ken Rowe (also known as: No Kum-Suk) around the Bay Area, Folsom, and Lake Tahoe. Ken was the North Korean Mig-15 pilot who defected to Kimpo Air Base where I was stationed on 21 September 1953. He's a great personality and fun to be with. You cannot believe the conditions he and his buddies lived under. If you are interested I'll send you a photo of his airplane parked in our alert area at Kimpo."

On the morning of September 21, 1953, Lt. Kum Sok No, a 21-year-old North Korean Air Force MiG pilot flew Russia's finest secret jet fighter to Kimpo AFB in Seoul, Korea and defected.

In his haste to get on the ground at Kimpo, he landed on a straight in approach, ignoring the traffic pattern and was actually downwind. He pulled off the runway, shut down the engine, pulled the canopy back and stood up with hands in the air.

Of course, pilots and aircrews gathered around the MiG, taking pictures with wide, unbelieving eyes. The tower scrambled the entire 4th Fighter Wing to protect the MiG on the ground from any Soviets or North Koreans who might want to attack and destroy the defecting plane and pilot.

A cargo plane flew the MiG to Okinawa for testing by two Air Force test pilots, one being Chuck Yeager. The testing lasted several months and comparisons were made against the F-86 Sabre. Later, the plane was disassembled again and airlifted to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

During flight tests the MiG-15 proved to be a better dogfighter with more maneuverability and acceleration, although the top speed was slightly less that the F-86. The wingspan of the F-86 is 37-feet, 1-inch and the fuselage measures 37-feet, 6-inches, while the MiG-15's wingspan is 33-feet, ¾ -inch and the fuselage is 35-feet, 7.5-inches.

The MiG had more firepower with a 37mm cannon, compared to the six .50 caliber machine in the wings of the Sabre, but fortunately we had fine pilots like Col. Lowery, with superb flying abilities.

Lowery continues today to be instrumental in efforts to find out what happened to missing F-86 pilots and other servicemen lost in duty to their country.

John visited Mojave Airport after SpaceShipOne had won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. I was pleased to have the opportunity to show him White Knight One and SpaceShipOne on November 16, 2004 at Scaled Composites.

On April 16, 2011, John Lowery came to Mojave again and was the featured guest speaker at Plane Crazy Saturday. He enjoyed sitting in the F-86 owned by my husband, Al Hansen.

John has authored many books and aviation articles too. One of our favorites is Life in the Wild Blue Yonder: Jet Fighter Pilot stories from The Cold War.

Thank you John for being a wonderful friend, in person and through email!

See you on our next flight!